Pulp frontman says that he needs to freshen up, comparing the year-long break from presenting the popular Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service to Crop Rotation in farming

Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker is taking a year off regular presenting duties on his popular BBC 6 Music show.

The singer confirmed that he wanted to refresh his show, Jarvis Cocker’s Sunday Service which he has presented for three years and that this Sunday's edition on December 29 would be the last for a year.

"Crop Rotation has long been recognized as a way of preserving the fertility of the soil. Every now and again a field has to be left fallow for a year in order to make sure it has time to recover. In 2014 I will be that field. T’is done with the firm conviction that it will lead to a stronger and more vigorous Sunday Service when I return to 6 Music’s pastures.

“Oh yes - and of course I'll keep popping up on 6 Music from time to time just to make sure that you haven't forgotten me. We wouldn't want that would we? Just call me the ‘Turnip Townshend of the Airwaves’."

His last show will be on December 29 in the usual slot of 4pm to 6pm on a Sunday and sees the singer looking back over some of his favourite moments from the Sunday Service across the past year, including extracts from the time he met David Attenborough who talked about musicality in the animal kingdom.

He will be replaced by what appears to be a rolling roster of presenters. In January it will be performance poet John Cooper Clarke and in February it will be Terry Hall, lead singer of The Specials.

The BBC declined to elaborate on what he was up to, insisting that he was “concentrating on other projects”.

A spokeswoman confirmed that he would be appearing on the network next year with special appearances and said that he would be returning to the show after the year out.

And so far his publicist at Rough Trade Records has not responded to our queries.

However it seems unlikely that he will be reforming the band Pulp which has recently got together for a series of live shows, including a date earlier this month in their hometown of Sheffield.

"I've enjoyed the fact that we haven't been doing any new stuff, because I felt that's kept it quite simple... We haven't been in the studio or anything. I don't know what will happen in the future,” he told Q.

"It was a big enough challenge to learn how to play all the old songs and, hopefully, perform them in a convincing way," he said. "We haven't got any [shows] planned after the New Year... We'll just be cruising off into the sunset. Seems poetic. Not wishing to make a big deal, but we've played for a while and it's been really good, but you can't keep doing that forever. Will you see Pulp again? Who knows."

Cocker began presenting the 6 Music Sunday afternoon slot in January 2010.